What is conditional employment?
Full BS7858 screening can take time, mostly because former employers are slow to respond. The standard allows for that: once limited screening is complete, a candidate can start work under conditional employment, while the rest of the screening finishes in the background.
What limited screening covers
Before conditional employment, limited screening typically confirms:
- Identity, current address and date of birth
- Right to work in the UK
- The SIA licence, or evidence of an application, for licensable roles
- Financial probity — adverse financial history
- At least the most recent three years of career history
- A financial sanctions check
Your own policies and client contracts can add to this list, so write your limited-screening policy down and apply it the same way every time.
The deadlines
Full screening must then be completed within:
- 12 weeks of the start of conditional employment for 5-year screening
- 16 weeks for 10-year screening
If screening can’t be completed in time, the employee should not continue in the role. Missed deadlines are one of the most common audit findings, so they need tracking per person, not in a spreadsheet someone checks occasionally.
Managing it on Yezda
Yezda shows conditional status and the time remaining on every case, keeps chasing the outstanding items automatically, and flags cases at risk before the deadline. Candidates can be conditionally cleared within hours. See the organisation portal.